Three years ago, I almost got Francis Lee to do an episode of Someone Else’s Movie. I was blown away by the textures and depth of feeling in his first feature, God’s Own Country, and knew he’d be a great guest … but we just couldn’t make the timing work. It’s cool, these things happen, I’d get him on the next picture.

Well, the next picture is Ammonite, which in many ways is the mirror image of God’s Own Country.  (You’ll see.) And he did get to do the podcast, which is why I’m telling you this story now.

Francis picked Now, Voyager, the 1942 Bette Davis melodrama that now plays as the apex of the studio “woman’s picture” — mainly because Davis is so uncannily good that she wrests the thing out of the genre entirely. We didn’t have a lot of time, but we made the most of it — and as you’ll hear, there are some surprising parallels to his own work.

Come and join us! Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher and get the episode immediately, or just download it directly from the web.

And then load up on the latest NOW What  episodes: On Friday, I talked to Kelsey Adams about how Toronto’s singles are coping with dating during a pandemic, and in today’s episode Julia Mastroianni joins me to discuss why the city’s temporary housing situation is such a clusterfuck. (My term, not hers.)

Want to read stuff? There’s last week’s What to Watch column, our monthly lookaheads to Netflix, Crave, Amazon, CBC Gem and Disney+. And there’s even more coming, because I am a word machine and I make more words every day.

I really need to sleep, you guys.